Typophile

help for a rookie?

Deadmongoose

So I've just downloaded about a hundred or so fonts in the past couple of days and my typeface selection is now looking a bit cluttered...

I have noticed that when downloading non-commercial fonts, they are often not as well organised as I'd like and the various typeface variants appear as seperate entries when selecting one in illustrator for example, (e.g. "Font", "Font-Bold", "Font-Condensed", "Font-Expanded"); rather than as a single entry (e.g. "Font") with sub categories in the second menu (e.g. "Bold", "Condensed" etc.).

I was simply wondering if there was a way to compile these variants into a sub-categorised form as mentioned?

Hope that makes sense... Thanks :)

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Nick Curtis

Hope that makes sense...

I suppose so, but it's a little Anal-Retentive, innit? You can always open the fonts in a font editor, rename them the way you want them, then generate new versions...if the EULAs allow it.

Deadmongoose

sorry i'm kinda new to this, how would I rename them so that they compile into one entry with the sub-categories?

thanks for the help

Jens Kutílek

Well, at least the commercial fonts you downloaded have their naming set up correctly (DIN Pro in the second image). Perhaps that's the reason why they usually cost money?

Bert Vanderveen

Jens has a point: those cheap (or even free) fonts don’t always adhere to the naming conventions. It IS part of the quality control that a proper designer should have… and the reason why a nominal renumeration is required.

Deadmongoose

so does anyone know how I can edit the (free) fonts I have to do this?
Is it possible in fontlab?

cheers

Frode Bo Helland

Fontlab is not free. Fontforge is, me thinks. You’ll have to look up the EULA’s of the fonts you need to edit, as many of them (even free ones) might not allow modifications.

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